Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has added a new member to the team of galactic heroes, casting French actress Pom Klementieff, best known in the U.S. for her role in Spike Lee’s remake of Oldboy. Klementieff’s role is being kept under wraps for now, but we’re told she’ll be playing the superhero Mantis. Introduced on the pages of Avengers #112 in 1973 and created by Steve Englehart and Don Heck, Mantis is the half-Vietnamese, half-German daughter of the antihero Libra, and a martial arts expert with psychic abilities and ties to the alien Kree race. Since 2007 the character has appeared as an uneasy member of the Guardians as a kind of ship’s counselor and has played a key role in recent storylines involving the team, most notably in the Secret Invasion crossover. The character is also tied closely to Thanos, played by Josh Brolin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Marvel conducted a wide search for an actress of Asian descent, leading to much speculation that Mantis would appear in Guardians 2. Stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are returning along with writer-director James Gunn. Klementieff is repped by Untitled Entertainment.

Kurt Russell Confirms He's In Talks With Marvel For Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 Role

Kurt Russell has confirmed that he has been in talks with Marvel Studios, but things aren’t as clear cut as previous rumors may have made it seem.

Russell says he was invited to join the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but hasn’t actually seen the original film. As such, he’s been hesitant to sign on too quickly.

“I literally got a phone call two days ago about this,” Russell said on the Wolfpop podcast. “I’ve never seen Guardians of the Galaxy so I don’t know anything about it…So, I didn’t realize that [James Gunn] had written and directed it, but we talked to each other on the phone. And I just had to be honest and say, ‘Thank you for considering me, I have to read [the script], and I have to watch the [first] movie because I can’t bring anything for you [right now]. I’ve got nothing to offer here. So, I’m amazed to get asked about this because everybody knows more about it than I do... it’s a little weird.”

We don't know when we'll see the Marvel Cinematic Universe's big bad Thanos next but it won't come in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige, advised, "I wouldn't look too hard in [Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2] for Thanos." We were going to, seeing as Thanos made his first non-post-credits scene appearance in the first Guardians.

Sure, we'll have to wait, but it sounds like it will be worth it. Fans have criticized Thanos for sitting around in his floating throne somewhere in the galaxy without doing anything himself, but Feige says that won't be the case next time. Remember, he grabbed himself an Infinity Gauntlet by the time Avengers: Age of Ultron's credits were through. "The next time we see Thanos he will not be messing around. It will be, 'Oh, that's why they've been teasing this villain for five years,'" Feige explained while speaking to Empire magazine.

As for Guardians Vol. 2, we might be expecting some new characters which will line up with some of the Guardians teams from less recent comics. "There've been many different incarnations of the Guardians over the years in the comics and we'll catch a glimpse of additions over the course of the movie,” Feige says.

First Film to Shoot on RED's 8K Vista Vision Camera is 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'

RED has just confirmed that the first major feature film shooting on their new 8K camera is Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

While the flagship 8K WEAPON Vista Vision/full-frame 35mm camera is a lot more than most of us need right now, major Hollywood features can always find a way to take advantage of more resolution and higher frame rates. This camera is slowly starting to trickle out to RED users who have pre-ordered it, but as always with the newest tech, high profile shows often get first crack at it. The 8K DRAGON sensor shares similar image characteristics — like pixel size, color, and dynamic range — as the 6K DRAGON sensor, but is much larger.

The 8K WEAPON camera can shoot at a variety of resolutions including 6K, 5K, 4K, etc. (and of course 8K at 8,192 x 4,320), and for a comparison, here's what that RED 8K frame looks like compared to some other formats:

Here's RED's press release on this:

“We are all hugely excited to be shooting the next Guardians of the Galaxy on the new WEAPON 8K. This is my third collaboration with RED, having previously shot with the RED EPIC® on Prometheus and the EPIC DRAGON on Tarzan,” says Nik Korda, Executive Producer. “The large sensor size and super high resolution offered by the new WEAPON 8K, combined with its lightweight and compact size open up a whole range of new creative possibilities.”

As with the rest of the industry, if people have a good experience using a particular product, they're usually going to go back, and we're seeing that again here with the choice of the 8K WEAPON for Guardians 2, as DP Henry Braham, BSC previously worked with RED on Tarzan. James Gunn, the director, used the RED ONE on his film Super, and though the first Guardians film was mostly ALEXA, he's gone back to RED for the newest film shooting in February. Gunn expanded on why this camera was chosen over something like the ARRI 65 on Facebook:

It was a huge question. I love both cameras. It came down to the fact that we're employing some additional new technologies in creating the film and I needed the smaller physical size of the RED to do so.

It will be interesting to see what kind of workflow and what lenses they choose for the film. The Vista Vision sensor on the WEAPON 8K means they'll have to choose lenses that cover full-frame 35mm or larger, though I imagine it's possible that only parts of the film will actually be shot in 8K, just like we've seen with other films that shoot higher-quality formats for specific scenes.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that most, or all of it could be in 8K full-frame, however, as a movie like The Revenant, which is now in theaters, shot quite a bit of the film on ARRI's 6K ALEXA 65 (above 10% or close to 25% depending on the source). That camera has a much larger sensor than Vista Vision, and at times much higher data rates due to being uncompressed RAW (while RED's is compressed).

Inevitably people will ask why anyone wants to shoot higher than 4K when that's the maximum we can see in a theater, but with the way sensors are designed, you're not getting a 1:1 pixel ratio for each color channel. A Bayer pattern sensor, which is what all of these cameras use, puts an emphasis on the color green, and has to interpolate color information:

The higher the resolution of the sensor to start off with, the more color information we're going to have, and therefore the higher the "resolved detail" will be. 8K can give a sharper and clearer 4K, just like 4K can deliver a sharper and clearer 2K/1080p image. This is one of the reasons that Sony's F35 and F65 both have much higher resolutions than their final output. The F35 had a 5K sensor for 1080p output and the F65 has an 8K x 2K sensor for a 4K output.

Beyond this, for VFX, reframing, and stabilization, having more resolution than your intended output can always be helpful.

James Gunn says David Bowie was under consideration for a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

We were shocked and saddened earlier today to learn that rock icon and actor David Bowie passed away at the age of 69 from cancer. Now, James Gunn has revealed on his Facebook that the Ziggy Stardust singer was offered (and interested in) a cameo in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Read Gunn’s heartfelt thoughts below.

“Just a very short while ago Kevin Feige and I were talking about a cameo role in ‘Guardians Vol. 2,’ and he brought up Bowie’s name,” wrote Gunn. “I told him nothing in the world would make me happier, but I heard from common friends he wasn’t doing well. We heard back that he was okay and it could potentially happen. Who knows what that was about? But, for whatever reason, it made my Twitter revelation more of a surprise.”

Even though the director is still reeling from the news, he left open the possibility of including another Bowie track in the sequel.

“Bowie was an idol of mine, huge and omnipresent,” Gunn continued. “Few artists in any field have had as an indelible impression upon me as he has. To my mind, Ziggy Stardust is perhaps the greatest rock and roll album of all time. We featured “Moonage Daydream” in Guardians, but I always thought the album’s character was felt far beyond that, in the aesthetics, in the integral and seemingly-natural linking in popular culture of ’70’s rock and space opera. I’ve been trying to work another song from Ziggy into the sequel, which would make Bowie the only artist to have a song on both Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. I thought this was fair and appropriate. Although I cut the scene it was used in from the script, we have the rights. Who knows. Maybe I can figure a way out.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 cast will once again feature Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper as unlikely heroes who must team up in order to defeat a cosmic force of epic proportions. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will debut in theaters on May 5, 2017.